Experienced New Team to Lead OAPSE

 

Carson, Lang, Wheeler to serve as the union’s top officers

 
After 34 historic years as OAPSE State President, JoAnn Johntony has retired from her job with Girard City Schools and resigned her position as the union’s top officer. She has been named President Emeritus by the State Executive Board for her lifetime and will continue to be involved in union activities.

State President Lois Carson

Lois Carson is the new State President of OAPSE, succeeding JoAnn Johntony. Lois is the former State Vice President, a position to which she was elected in November 2015. Lois has been a member of the union’s statewide executive board since 2013, serving as the Central District Executive Board alternate and board member before moving to State Vice President. Lois has been a secretary at Columbus City Schools for 32 years and currently works in the Department of Higher Education, located at Columbus International High School. In 2010, she was elected president of the Columbus School Employees Association (CSEA), made up of 11 local unions with more than 3,000 members who work in the Columbus City Schools. She was re-elected to that post in 2015. Lois is the current vice-president of OAPSE Local 150, the union for Columbus City Schools’ secretaries, and is past president of that local union. She is also an active member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lois is a graduate of Columbus City Schools. She studied Secretarial Studies and Office Administration at Columbus City School Adult Education and Early Childhood Education at Columbus State Community College. Lois was married for 27 years and has four children with her late husband. She enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren.

State Vice President Mike Lang

Mike Lang was elected by the State Executive Board as the new OAPSE State Vice President. A 10-year OAPSE Local 470 leader at Mount Vernon City Schools, Mike had served as North Central District State Executive Board alternate since 2016. He started with Mt. Vernon City Schools in 2009 as a custodian, but the majority of his decade with the district has been as a computer technician. Mike is from a union family and was a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at Cooper Energy Services. After a plant layoff, he worked at a cabinet manufacturing company, where he was active in union organizing campaigns. Mike was hired at Mount Vernon City Schools in September 2009 and signed a union card immediately. Within a few months, he was vice president of that local, which is the union for more than 120 workers in the district. Mike has served as Local 470 president since 2014 and was elected North Central District vice president in 2019. He is a graduate of Mount Vernon City Schools. Mike and his wife, Dianna, are parents of one son.

State Secretary Sandy Wheeler

Sandra Wheeler is OAPSE State Secretary, a position she was elected to in 1991. Sandy has been a secretary in Lima City Schools for 35 years. She previously served as the Northwest Central District State Executive Board alternate for one year. Sandy has held the position of president of Northwest Central District since 1990 and has been the president of Local 306, the union for Lima City Secretaries, since 1987. Sandy is president of OAPSE Making a Difference, Inc., the union’s charitable organization that works to reduce childhood hunger for students across Ohio. She represented OAPSE as a member of the AFSCME International Union’s Women’s Advisory Committee. She also served as an AFSCME representative to the National Executive Board of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). She formerly served as one of the two appointed positions as the Northwest Central District PEOPLE Coordinator on the State PEOPLE Committee. Sandy is a member of the Ohio AFL-CIO’s Northwest Area Labor Federation’s (ALF) Executive Board and is a former trustee of the West Central Labor Council (CLC). Sandy and her husband, Ivan, have two children and six grandchildren.